Toronto – Every Monday, on this little tool called ‘twitter’ there is a hashtag named ‘musicmonday’ where people post a url to a song or something, and expect other ‘tweeps’ to click on it to embrace your musical tastes. I highly doubt anyone would do this, but in the rare case it does, I figure it would be more worthwhile for them to come to this website instead of say, youtube.

In case you are wondering, our twitter account is: http://twitter.com/panicmanual/. Feel free to add us, we usually don’t spam your account with things like ‘today i am brushing my teeth – crest or colgate? hmm’. Sometimes, we might. I don’t know.

This week’s #MusicMonday features Black Grape, the forgotten Shaun Ryder band. He formed this band after the demis of the Happy Mondays, and just like with that band, Mr. Ryder is reforming this band in hopes to score some money and probably some dope (or a downpayment on a house? who knows) .

The reunion takes place on April 1st, 2010 (hmmm Aprils Fools day) at the Coronet Theatre in London. I don’t know when tickets are on sale, or when.

At their best, Black Grape was definitely better sounding then Happy Monday. It was funky, it was danceable and it was all the things that made the Mondays great, but seemingly with more focus, as hard as it is to believe. Check out this song, Kelly’s Heroes.

Can’t find the video anywhere. Josh. Help.

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Monday – The Bravery rock out to Kimmel on a repeat. Classic rock guitarist Joe Satriani is performing with the Roots on Fallon.

Tuesday – Sade rocks the house. Does anyone ever know anything about Sade? We had a podcast on this before. Hipster piano lady Regina Spektor takes her act all the way to..New York to be on Fallon. Everyone’s favorite CBC personality, George Stephanopoulos is on Colbert Report.

Wednesday – Hype machine Chris Keating and his band Yeasayer are on Fallon. Can’t believe they sold out so quickly in Toronto, I haven’t even listened to this album yet.

Thursday – Jimmy Fallon is bringing the power this week! Kings of Convenience play their show in promotion of their new album Declaration of Dependance.

Friday - Dashboard Confessional goes to Kimmel to answer the ever popular question “Is Dashboard Confessional still alive?”. The answer is a resounding yes, but no one cares. Fallon caps off a great weak of indie music with .. Selena Gomez.

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Toronto – Lets take a time machine. The year we are going back to is 2003. Queue up the Delorean, doc!

Wow. 2003. What a time. George W is still the president of the US, Friends was still on the error, and the Strokes were still in their early 20s. Ricky had just moved from dreary Edmonton to new and exciting Toronto and was in the process of stealing as many of his friend’s friends as possible.

What’s more, there’s this really cool collaboration between Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and unknown DJ called Dntel. It’s called the Postal Service and it’s the perfect marriage between indie pop and electronic music. Suddenly, all the indie kids decided that hey, having a few blips and boops in the music isn’t that bad and all the electro kids were..well, they were still on ecstacy and mdma so they didn’t really decide anything. It was an exciting time, bust out a tune like ‘Such Great Heights’ on any dance floor and you were bound to see people going nuts. Everyone decided this project was just great and were inspired by it. It definitely made an impression Adam Young. It made such an impression on him that he decided to form an act that sounded EXACTLY LIKE the Postal Service.

This is what listening to Owl City is like. It is a shameless impersonation of a band that everyone loves. I remember putting this album on when me and my friends were playing a game of Puerto Rico and people were asking if this was Postal Service or Death Cab. I had to actually go to my laptop to make sure it wasn’t. That’s how much it sounds like the band.

Now to be honest, musical doppelgangers are quite common today. When the Libertines came out, there was all kinds of English bands that wanted to sound like them – Razorlight, The Paddingtons, etc. Same with the Strokes. I can’t even begin to list the amount of bands that tried to replicate that garagey rock sound the Strokes pulled off with ‘This is It’. However, most of these bands tried to put their own little signature in their music. Having listened to Owl City, I can hardly find anything that distinguishes it from the Postal Service. Granted, I’ve only listened to the album twice, but to me, that was enough.

Owl City is playing Toronto’s Sound Academy on April 27th. It is sold out, and the singles have been #1 on Billboard. So I guess in the end, it was probably a wise decision for Adam Young to completely emulate a popular band that everyone still loves.

Stereogum Article

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The 31st annual RHUBARB Festival is happening over the next three weeks at the Buddies In Bad Times Theatre here in Toronto. It is known as an experimental or contemporary theatre festival. What does that mean? It means that you are going to see some cool new performance pieces on stage. Outside of that, I think anything goes. Definitely a fitting venue for a first date if you are looking for something to talk about while you sip on drinks afterwards. I have never attended Rhubarb, so I am not exactly sure what I am in for. Here are a few excerpts from the festivals press release that should help you out.

*Rhubarb is more than a new play festival; it is a singular site for adventure-loving audiences to experience contemporary theatre in its most unrestrained state.*

*At Rhubarb, we allow the artist and the idea to be the centre.*

TICKETS Evening Pass $17, Week Pass $25, Festival Pass $60
Call or visit the Box Office 416-975-8555 Buddies In Bad Times Theatre

Here is a preview of the first week of shows. These shows caught my eyes because they boasted face masturbation, a bathtub striptease, wrestling dynasties fighting for the title, and a live re-enactment of a 2007 Beyonce concert. Really? Awesome.

Tragic Magic 8pm, The Cabaret
Created and performed by Glenn Marla
Tragic Magic, is one tranny’s dark, hilarious exploration of how we interact with our bodies and our past. Glenn’s new work combines text, dance, face masturbation, affirmations, body break ups, glitter, grit and a bathtub striptease, continuing his tradition of visual and theatrical daring.

Dead Wrestlers 8:30pm, Chamber A
Created and directed by Aurora Stewart de Peña and Nika Mistruzzi
Dead Wrestlers charges triumphantly along the path separating two epic Wrestling Dynasties, the Lovers and The Von Spikehorns. Taking place sometime in the fog between 1975 and 1982, these two noble families will fight to the death for the title, shining with body grease, resplendent with sound effects and holding a grudge. Six Wrestlers. Three Belts. One Title. Brought to you by Birdtown and Swanville.

THE NEAL MEDLYN EXPERIENCE LIVE! with Neal Medlyn
One Night Only
FRI, FEB 12, 9:30pm (60min) The Chamber B
A live, faithful re-enactment of Beyonce’s 2007 concert DVD The Beyonce Experience Live! featuring backup dancers, birthday cake, cameos by Destiny’s Child, and box fans to blow Neal’s hair. Presented to great acclaim and sold out crowds at the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York as well as the TBA Festival in Portland Oregon, Austin’s Fusebox Festival, and will appear at the Warhol Museum 2010.

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Toronto – Superbowl is pretty much a North American holiday. People go over to peoples houses, eat chili or wings or both, drink some beer and watch either a really good (last two years) or really bad game (Eagles – Pats anyone?). There’s always an extravagant half time show, and this year will feature the Who, who were popular around the time of the FIRST Superbowl.

Anyways, here is my prediction

Colts 34, Saints 21

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Toronto – This is going to be a fairly lazy review, I will probably pull a Jamie Foxx and name drop a bunch of things here, hoping somehow that in the process, a review will somehow percolate subconsciously in your head and you’ll come away from the article thinking this was a good review. Local Natives are a 5 piece band from Los Angeles, California. I thought Local Natives in California were known as Mexicans. HAHA. Maybe that’s a sensitive issue, I am not sure. Anyways, they have an album coming out on February 16th, it’s called Gorilla Manor.

The band relies on 3 part harmonies, layered with a chilled out Caribbean cruise ship rock vibe and thus, has drawn comparisons to bands such as Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes. I also think you can draw comparisons to bands like My Morning Jacket, Passion Pit and a happier Band of Horses as well. They are signed to Frenchkiss records, who are on a absolute roll these days, having had the Antlers and Passion Pit break through into the blogosphere last year. I am 100% sure Local Natives will do the same this year.

Gorilla Manor is a solid chilled out affair. As with any Vampire Weekendish sounding record, it’s something you can always put on, because of it’s mellow weekend vibe. There’s a cover of a Talking Heads song (“Warning Sign”) on there and I can already sense that songs like Airplanes, Sun Hands and Wide Eyes are going to be popular, and will probably be in some movie soundtracks.

Overall, if you like any of the bands I have mentioned, and want to listen to say, a more upbeat, more Californian version of them, then definitely check out Gorilla Manors. It would probably be in your best interest to see a show when they tour the first time, because the next time they come around, it’ll be at a way big venue and packed.

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Toronto – We are back with another podcast. Join us as we discuss various events including Hong Kong, LG Filmfest, Last.FM, Canadian Music Week, upcoming shows and vinyl. Music played include PS I Love You, Editors, Beach House, Gravity Wave, Rodrigo Y Gabriela and some others!

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It has been over 5 years, but Munich based Lali Puna is back, or should I say is going to be back, with a new release on April 1st, Our Inventions. The band is fronted by singer and keyboard player Valerie Trebeljahr, with help from members of The Notwist (Christian Hei, Markus Acher) and drummer Christoph Brandner.

I remember catching the Lali Puna video for Micronomic on The Wedge several years ago. That song prompeted me to buy Faking The Books way back in 2004. If you are a fan of Lali Puna, then the new album is much more of what you have come to like. If you have never heard of Lali Puna, well, Our Inventions is a solid place to start. The album is really good. By good I mean extravagant in its subtleties. I love the xylophone and vibes and there is plenty of that to go around on Our Inventions. Electronic, chill, pop music tied together by the vocals of Trebeljahr.

Listening to Our Inventions reminded me of a plan that some friends and I had to start a DJ night in a local bar, but instead of dance or pop music, we would go in the other direction and play the slower stuff. We would take Low requests, mix in some Kings Of Convenience with the Great Lake Swimmers, and likely spin some Lali Puna. That was a good idea. I should get back on it.

This is late night listening at its best. Worth picking up. Have a listen to Remember below. I like it.

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Click Here for a larger view..

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Do They Know It’s Christmas
Queen, Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Bono (of course), Paul Weller, George Michaels, Sting, David Bowie, Boy George, Paul McCartney, Kool & The Gang

The one that started it all. I think Simon Le Bon and George Michael had a hair off, while Sting looks really bored. Funny scene as Bono tries to sneak into the shot with Sting and Le Bon. Paul Weller doesn’t even look like he wants to be there.

Tears Are Not Enough
Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bryan Adams, Corey Hart, Rush, Oscar Peterson, Loverboy, Eugene Levy, John Candy(!), Tom Cochrane

Burton Cummings looks petrified in this low budget Canadian affair. Corey Hart looks like he’s a junky waiting for his next fix, and Neil Young looks hilarious. Bryan Adams is absolutely pure drama (ohhhh Yeaaaa). Pure Comedy.

We are the World
Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Darryl Hall, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles

The lack of black people in the previous videos musta set off Quincy Jones that they too, must make a charity single. This heavy roster is probably the most recognizable charity song. It’s pretty good, Kenny Roger looks like he really really cares. This video is good because you can see all these mega stars trying to out do each other, and then you get Michael Jackson singing near nobody. He must not have been there. I wonder who distributes the lines on these songs. Springsteen has a great growl in this song too. Then Michael comes out from whatever his dark room he is in to sing with the crowd. Cyndi Lauper threatens to derail the song with a surely coke infused cameo. This video also gets points for having two blind people on it.

All Star Tribute – What’s Going On
P Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Bono, Eve, Nelly, Savage Garden, mary J. Blige, Nsync, Alicia Keys, Michael Stipe, Destiny’s Child, J-Lo, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet Boys, Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado, Nas, Fred Durst, Wycleff Jean

I don’t even think this was a charity album, and the lineup now seems questionable. It tries to be too artsy with the whole unwrapping of the bandana around the eye thing. I love how Nelly and Fred Durst’s part sound exactly like every other one of their songs. Not the best charity song. There’s not even a default group chorus part. Fail.

Pulp
This one is the best, obviously.

In conclusion, I have no conclusion.

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